Avaliação de linhagens bacterianas obtidas a partir do kefir como cultura iniciadora para produção de embutido cárneo fermentado

Abstract

The fermented sausage is a naturally or through of a starter culture fermented meat product, which has final pH between 4.8 and 6.2, and Aw 0.90 and is stable at room temperature. Starter cultures must quickly acidify the mass and contribute to the development of product characteristics. Lactic acid bacteria are microorganisms commonly used as starter culture of fermented products for their acidification capacity. They also comprise a large part of the kefir microbiota, a dairy fermented drink composed by a variety of microorganisms. Strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated from kefir grains and identificated by PCR, were evaluated for their potential to starter culture of fermented sausage. The eight strains used belong tLactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Lactococcus. Lactobacillus satsumensis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides were selected to be evaluated as starter culture of fermented sausage, because they had the best results in acidification capacity and growth in vitro. As fermented sausage, were prepared 3 treatments of typical italian salami: SCO (salami control without addition of starter culture), SCS (salami added to the selected culture) and SCC (salami added with the commercial culture). The treatments were evaluated during the fermentation, ripening and during storage process. Were made analyzes of microbiological, pH, weight loss, water activity, color, texture, and finally the chemical composition. Among the treatments, the SCC reached pH 5.3 in a shorter time fermentation, followed by the SCS. However, during the ripening until the end of the drying process, the SCS treatment maintained the lowest pH. During the storage, the pH of the SCS and SCC treatments experienced a slight increase by the end of 30 days. The final values of weight loss ranged between 42.54 and 43.90, while all treatments achieved water activity below 0.90 at the end of the process, remaining after 30 days of storage. The parameters L*, a* and b* to color and texture ranged little between the treatments and during the storage period. The treatments also complied the standards of identity and quality and microbiological to typical italian salami, fixed by Brazilian legislation, except for the humidity parameter, which showed values slightly above recommended. The selected starter culture has shown considerable promise in the manufacture of fermented sausage like typical italian salami.